Empiric Student Property plc

("Empiric" or the "Company" or, together with its subsidiaries, the "Group")

BUSINESS AND TRADING UPDATE

Empiric Student Property plc (ticker: ESP), the owner and operator of premium, studio-led student accommodation aligned to top-tier universities across the UK, is pleased to provide a business and trading update as at 4 June 2025.

Highlights

·     Pace of reservations for academic year 2025/26 remains comfortably ahead of the wider market providing encouragement that our portfolio will again be effectively full

·    Like for like growth in average weekly rents expected to exceed inflation at 4 - 5% for academic year   2025/26

·   Placing proceeds earmarked for acquisitions fully deployed following the acquisition of Selly Oak     Apartments in Birmingham, with the roll-out of our Postgraduate exclusive product ahead of plan

·      Another strong and improving re-booker rate for the academic year starting in September

Duncan Garrood, Chief Executive Officer of Empiric Student Property plc, said:

"Despite market and policy dynamics, the business remains in great shape, with customer satisfaction underpinning an improving re-booker rate. Like other PBSA operators, we are experiencing a normalisation in our sales pattern, with a later booking profile than that we've experienced in more recent post pandemic years. The attractiveness of the UK's Higher Education sector continues to drive strong demand for PBSA, particularly toward higher-tariff University cities to which we are primarily aligned. It is this dynamic that provides confidence we will again deliver rental growth ahead of inflation.

Following the Company's share placing in the Autumn, we are pleased to report that deployment is progressing ahead of plan with prospective returns aligning with the commitments made. We are also making good progress on the two exciting planning consents recently achieved, which should unlock value in 2026 and beyond."

Academic year 2025/26                            

Following the return to a more normalised sales pattern, wherein recent years bookings cycles have progressed significantly faster than the long-term average, reservations remain behind those achieved for the 2024/25 academic year at 65 per cent. Given this later booking pattern, the impact of dynamic pricing has been more muted relative to this point last year.

Based on market data available from StuRents, our occupancy rate continues to outperform the wider market month on month and we therefore continue to anticipate achieving an occupancy rate of 97 per cent or better with the delivery of like for like rental growth comfortably in excess of inflation at between four and five per cent.

To date, the year has seen another strong re-booker performance with over 60 per cent of those eligible to re-book choosing to do so, which is another tangible endorsement of customer satisfaction and the value inherent in our offer and service proposition.

Portfolio management

The April 2025 acquisition of Selly Oak Apartments in Birmingham completed the deployment of the placing proceeds which had been earmarked for acquisition opportunities.

Good progress continues to be made on the deployment of proceeds allocated to the roll out of our Postgraduate exclusive product. Three newly converted and refurbished schemes in Bath, Sheffield and Southampton are on plan to open in September 2025, ahead of target. College House in Bristol is scheduled to open in early 2026, following planning consent achieved earlier this year for the conversion of this former office block into a 57-bed, all-studio student accommodation scheme exclusively for Postgraduates.

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In January we announced that Manchester City Council had granted detailed planning permission for the comprehensive redevelopment and reconfiguration of our Victoria Point site, allowing us to increase the current provision of beds by 310.

Preparatory work has been ongoing to optimise the delivery of the consent achieved and facilitate a phased implementation plan, which at this point is anticipated to begin in late 2026. The scheme's Section 106 agreement has been agreed in line with policy provision and funding options are currently being explored, with a good degree of lender appetite evident.

The last of the Group's non-core properties is under offer and progressing toward sale. Although not a strategic imperative, we will continue to dispose of properties that are non-aligned to top-tier Universities as market opportunities and pricing allows, ensuring shareholder value is maximised at all times.

Debt & liquidity

As at 31 March 2025, pro forma EPRA LTV was 27.7 per cent (based on 31 December 2024 valuations), with cash and available facilities of £73.6 million.

The weighted average cost of drawn debt was 4.5 per cent. The weighted average term to maturity stood at 4.5 years, with the next material refinancing due in 2028.

Dividends

Alongside our full year results in March 2025, we set out our expectation of meeting a minimum full year dividend of 3.7 pence per share for 2025. Today we have declared our first quarter dividend of 0.925 pence per share, in line with this target.

ENDS

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY, PLEASE CONTACT:

The Company's LEI is 213800FPF38IBPRFPU87.

Further information on Empiric can be found on the Company's website at www.empiric.co.uk.

Notes:

Empiric Student Property plc is a leading provider and operator of modern, predominantly direct-let, premium student accommodation serving key UK universities. Investing in both operating and development assets, Empiric is a fully integrated operational student property business focused on premium studio-led accommodation managed through its Hello Student operating platform, that is attractive to affluent growing student segments.

The Company, an internally managed real estate investment trust ("REIT") incorporated in England and Wales, listed on the premium listing segment of the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority and was admitted to trading on the main market for listed securities of the London Stock Exchange in June 2014. The Company is classified as a commercial company listed under chapter 6 of the UK Listing rules and as such is not an alternative investment fund ("AIF") for the purposes of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive ("AIFMD") and is not required to provide investors with a Key information Document ("KID") in accordance with the Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products ("PRIIPs") regulations.